Tag Archives: Skeptical Science

The Escalator

One of the most well-known graphics from Skeptical Science is the escalator. It illustrates how contrarians tend to cherry-pick short time intervals so as to argue that there’s been no warming, while “realists” recognise the reality of long-term warming. A … Continue reading

Posted in Global warming | Tagged , , , | 100 Comments

No, a cherry-picked analysis doesn’t demonstrate that we’re not in a climate crisis

This is a repost of an article that I wrote for Skeptical Science, with help from @TheDisproof, who has been very active on Twitter debunking various climate myths. A group of Italian scientists recently published a paper in which they … Continue reading

Posted in Climate change, ClimateBall, Global warming, physicists, Scientists, Severe Events | Tagged , , , , | 320 Comments

FAIL Better

Recently AT reminded us of FLICC, a taxonomy of contrarian tactics introduced in 2007 by MarkH. His bro’s Deck still shines. As a first post of a science blog, it does the job. As a permanent classifier, it deserves some … Continue reading

Posted in ClimateBall, how-to, Pseudoscience, SpeedoScience | Tagged , , , , , , | 12 Comments

FLICC

I should probably be writing about the UK recording temperatures above 40oC for the first time, but it’s been covered pretty extensively elsewhere. Instead I thought I might briefly mention something that I’ve become more interested in and have been … Continue reading

Posted in Climate change, Philosophy for Bloggers | Tagged , , , , | 153 Comments

Classification of contrarian claims about climate change

The latest controversy in the climate debate is the publication of a paper on [c]omputer-assisted classification of contrarian claims about climate change. The authors are Travis Coan, Constantine Boussalis, John Cook, and Mirjam Nanko. You may recognise John Cook as … Continue reading

Posted in ClimateBall, Philosophy for Bloggers, Research | Tagged , , , , , | 203 Comments

Anti-Virus

There’s a new site called Anti-Virus: The Covid-19 FAQ. It’s a little like Skeptical Science, with articles that respond to common arguments made by Covid Sceptics (what Skeptical Science would call Climate Myths). On a related note, I have been … Continue reading

Posted in ClimateBall, Pseudoscience, Science | Tagged , , , , | 536 Comments

Chanting to the choir?

Before I head off to the office (or, more correctly, go from watching the news in the living room, to the dining room table) I thought I would briefly mention a recent paper that has analysed blog comments. It’s by … Continue reading

Posted in Climate change, ClimateBall, Global warming, Philosophy for Bloggers, Scientists | Tagged , , , , , | 70 Comments

Climate misinformers

There’s been a rather lengthy debate on Twitter about Skeptical Science’s Climate Misinformers page. The discussion involved, amongst others, Richard Betts, Peter Jacobs, Steven Mosher, Gavin Cawley, and – briefly – myself. Before I start, I should acknowledge an association … Continue reading

Posted in Climate change, ClimateBall, Pseudoscience, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 206 Comments

A challenge for my readers

John Cook and colleagues have new paper out about [d]econstructing climate misinformation to identify reasoning errors. The basic idea is to inoculat[e] against misinformation by explaining the fallacious reasoning within misleading denialist claims. and to [o]ffer a strategy based on … Continue reading

Posted in Climate change, ClimateBall, Pseudoscience, Satire, The scientific method | Tagged , , , , , , | 402 Comments

Andy Skuce

As many probably already know, Andy Skuce passed away last week. Andy was someone I greatly respected who made a significant, positive contribution to the dialogue about climate and energy. Andy was a key contributor to Skeptical Science, and wrote … Continue reading

Posted in Climate change, Personal | Tagged , | 16 Comments